Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF STAYING ROSSI
Victoria did not threaten Elena. She explained consequences.
If Elena continued, federal agencies would examine every false form Lucia had filed. Creditors could challenge Elena's identity. Her passport might be suspended. The Vale board would argue that returning thirty-five percent of the company could destabilize loans, pension obligations, and eleven thousand jobs.
“Five million dollars is not hush money,” Victoria said. “It is an exit from a war you do not understand.”
Elena read the agreement carefully.
“You want me to call my mother a kidnapper.”
“The woman who raised you stole a dead infant's identity.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“A court may disagree.”
Elena placed the unsigned agreement on the table. “Then a court can hear all of it.”
Victoria's composure slipped. “Lucia is not here to survive what you are about to uncover.”
It sounded like cruelty. Later, Elena realized it had also been fear.
Lucia had left few possessions: clothing, recipes, three boxes of photographs, and a metal cashbox Elena had never managed to open. On the underside of the silver locket, a conservator found a sequence scratched so faintly it appeared to be tarnish.
R.S. 4187.
Rebecca traced the initials to Ruth Sandoval, a legal-aid attorney who had practiced in Albany during Elena's childhood. Ruth was retired but alive.
When Elena showed her the locket, Ruth unlocked a fireproof cabinet.
Lucia had visited her twenty-one years earlier. She wanted to report a kidnapped child but was terrified the report would be routed back to Graham Sterling. Ruth advised her that hiding a child indefinitely was illegal and urged her to seek protective custody. Lucia disappeared before the paperwork was filed.
But she left a sealed packet with instructions. It could be released to the adult wearing the repaired silver-bird locket.
Inside were copies of five registered letters sent to Adrian, child-welfare authorities, and federal investigators. Four had been returned. The fifth was the letter Adrian received.
There were also motel receipts, a photograph of four-year-old Elena asleep beneath Lucia's coat, and an audio cassette containing Lucia's sworn account.
Lucia's voice trembled through the old recorder.
On the night of the Vale benefit, she had seen Graham Sterling carry an unconscious Elena into a service van. Lucia followed, found the child awake and crying inside, and opened the rear door. Before she could reach the lobby, Graham returned with two security employees.
Someone else unlocked the service gate so Lucia could escape with Elena.
That person was twenty-year-old Victoria Sterling.
Elena stopped the tape.
Ruth handed her one final document: six months of money-order receipts showing that after the escape, someone had secretly sent Lucia enough money for food and shelter.
May you like
Every payment bore the same initials.
V.S.
